Archibald Douglas (British Army officer, born 1707)

For other people named Archibald Douglas, see Archibald Douglas (disambiguation).

Lt-General Archibald Douglas of Kirkton (1707 – 8 November 1778) was a Scottish Army officer and Member of Parliament.^[1]

Early life

He was the eldest son of William Douglas of Fingland and Lanarkshire heiress, Elizabeth "Betty" Clerk of Glenboig. His father was a Captain in the Royal Scots and fought in Germany and Spain. A former Jacobite, however, he had been forced to sell the family estate.^[2]

Career

Former White Hall, Witham, now the Witham Public Library.

He joined the army as a Cornet in the 4th Dragoons (then Sir Robert Rich's Dragoons) in 1739, rising to lieutenant in 1742, captain in 1745, major in 1746, lieutenant-colonel in 1746, colonel in 1756, major-general in 1759 and lieutenant-general in 1761. He took part in the Battles of Dettingen (where he had 3 horses shot from under him and an eyebrow shot away) and Minden. In 1756 he was made Aide-de-Camp to King George II. In 1758 he was made Regimental Colonel of the 13th Dragoons, a position he held until his death.

He sat as member for the Dumfries Burghs (Lochmaben, Annan and Sanquhar) from 1754 to 1761, and for Dumfriesshire from 1761 to 1774.^[3] In 1763 he purchased a country house in Newland Street, Witham, Essex which was later known as White Hall.

Personal life

In 1746 he married Elizabeth Burchard, a daughter of Edmund Burchard of Witham, Essex, with whom he had six sons and five daughters, including:^[4]

• Archibald Martin John Douglas (1747–1787), a Captain of the 13th Dragoons; he married Mary Elizabeth Crosbie.
• William Douglas (1755–1802), a Judge in India; he married Jane Bell in 1785.
• Alexander Douglas (1756–1793), a Captain in the Royal Navy; he married Margaret Maxwell.
• Philip Douglas (1758–1822), the vicar of Gedney from 1796 until his death.^[5]
• Jane Douglas (1760–1837), who married William Van Mildert, the Bishop of Durham who was the last to rule the County Palatine of Durham.
• Robert Douglas (1765–1806), who married Frances Vaughan, a daughter of Henry Vaughan Jeffreys of Kirkham Abbey, in 1787.

Douglas died in Dublin in 1778 and was buried at St Nicholas church, Witham, where there is a memorial to him.^[6]

Descendants

Through his son William, he was a grandfather of Philip Henry Douglas (1786–1867), who married Susanna Aplin; Jane Douglas (1789–1868), who married the Rev. William Wescomb of Thrumpton Hall in Nottinghamshire; and Mary Douglas (1794–1884), who married Edward Stanley of Dalegarth and Ponsonby, MP for West Cumberland.^[7]